She bristled for a moment, a flash of annoyance that her efforts could be dismissed as irrelevant, before reminding herself it wasn’t far from the truth. ‘But it’ll help. And we can go and see the bank, ask if we can extend the overdraft for a bit.’ Finally, the adrenaline kicked in and her mind began to feed her solutions. She started to gabble, desperate to make things better. ‘We can talk to the mortgage company about missing a repayment or two, can’t we? This must happen to people all the time. And I’m sure you’ll get another job in no time. I mean, your IT skills are—’

‘Specialist.’ He spat out the word as if he’d eaten something disgusting. ‘There’s not another company in Yorkshire that does what we do. It’s all London-based, and we don’t want to move down there, do we?’

Sara blinked, her positivity stalled for a moment. That couldn’t be right, could it? ‘Oh, come on, there must be companies round here that could employ you. Even if it’s more general…’

She tailed off, because in reality, she hadn’t got a clue exactly what Matt’s skill set was. Something to do with websites, but the back end, not the front end. Writing code. Problem-solving. Something along those lines. In all honesty, he told her very little about his work these days, and she’d stopped asking, because when he did try to explain, his words flew right over the top of her head, making no impact on her brain whatsoever. She was more of a people person; he was the abstract techie, his mind working in a different way to hers. She’d always thought their skills complemented each other, something that made them perfect together.

The urge to sink her head into her hands and give in to despair was strong, but one of them had to be up for the fight. One of them had to look for the positives, find a way out of this crisis.

Her hands clutched at her scalp as if she was trying to press inspiration into her panicked brain. When she had first become a mum, she’d considered herself lucky that Matt earned enough for her to stay at home and look after the kids. Over time, she’d managed to hide her frustration, her ever-increasing need to use her mind and learn new things, interact with people on a different level to the mummy world she’d inhabited for so long. Maybe now was the point when she could flip things round, give Matt a break while she went out to work and got her career going again.

Suddenly a new idea burst into her head and she gasped with relief.

The money! I’ve got the money.